


Make Love Not War

by LoLoa



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Steve, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Slow Burn, billy in denial, save and rescue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-07 16:57:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12845496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoLoa/pseuds/LoLoa
Summary: Steve has been missing for two months after El closed the gate and the Snow Ball took place. While the rest of the town copes, Billy continues to convince himself that he doesn’t give a shit.





	1. In an Empty Hawkins

**Author's Note:**

> this is a first fanfic so tread lightly c;

It’s been two months since Steve had gone missing, posters rested on telephone polls and outside of school walls, questioning where he might have went. His disappearance was grim, but in reality, life in Hawkins continued on as it usually did. The only peoples lives who had fallen to less than simply default were the ones who cared about him, and this honestly showed who that was. Because despite the masses of people who kissed Steve’s ass while he was present and high on the high-school food chain. They did so to gain cred or impress him, or impress other people, or maybe just to impress themselves. Despite all that, most of those people couldn’t try less to find out what had happened to him.

Though, the people who were really involved with him of course have been struggling and brainstorming and grieving this entire time. Nancy, the children, the parents of said children, Jonathan, Hopper. But each of those people knew what it really meant when someone went missing in Hawkins, Indiana. So that glum heavy feeling in Hawkins rested upon their shoulders entirely, and so did the responsibility to do something about it.

Billy didn’t care, or, at least that’s what he convinced himself, every time he saw the aforementioned Kings stupid face plastered outside the school he took it upon himself to tear it down in disgust. As far as he told himself, he didn’t know what had happened to Steve and he didn’t care. This mulleted asshole continued on his days as if nothing had happened. Going on sleazy dates which consisted only of cigarettes, car speakers and booze breath smooches in the front seats of his Camaro. 

He also continues to lay in his room and spin thrash metal records while disguising any thoughts he has in a hazy cloud of smoke. He had hardened himself long ago, become cold and callous, and been doing it for long enough to avoid any feelings of care for a boy he knew he fully despised.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

After sucking in a heavy puff of smoke on an overcast, mid-Monday. He decided to step out his room. Maybe go pump some iron downstairs, or watch whatever crappy flick is on TV. Though, once outside, it was hard to avoid hearing the low yet frantic voice of his step-sister yelling into what he could only assume was the walkie talkie he’d seen her holding previously. 

“No Dustin! Who knows where he could be or how we’re going to get there. I say we just follow Mike’s game plan and leave tomorrow night. We need to get this over with.

"Game plan? Billy was as thick as a world almanac so his first attempt at understanding was entirely unsuccessful. 

"I know Lucas.. I miss him too. And if no one else is going to bother helping to find him then we just HAVE TO do it ourselves.”

Oh my god. Billy couldn’t help it, actually he wasn’t quite sure why he did this. It was honestly just a visceral reaction for him to slam the door open with his foot. Something he hadn’t done in a long while. 

Max, jumped at the sound, eyes wide but hand still tightly wrapped around the walkie. After her initial moment of shock she narrowed her eyes in confusion and contempt almost giving Billy a “what the fuck do you want” look. This girl has known for months now that she has absolutely no reason to fear him, and he knew that as well. So why did he take the liberty to kick the door open? What was he hoping to accomplish? And what he had wondered: why had that conversation even caused him to care. 

But, Billy was nothing if not confident, so he continued on as he had originally intended. “Game plan? Let me get this straight little red riding “good”. Are you trying to find the shit lord who disappeared?”

Max stood up, she instinctually was holding down the microphone of the walkie, but the kids knew to keep their mouths shut on the other ends. “Shit lord?” She spat out with a surprised smirk. “Are you serious, Billy?" 

Max and Billy hadn’t spoken as fully as this ever since she pulled her stunt, everything after then had been angry huffs and threatening eye contact. She carried on, "He’s been gone for two months. Don’t treat this like it means nothing, I don’t care that you liked fighting him in basketball practice.” She wrung out that last sentence in a mocking tone. “Don’t be an idiot." 

A small "Oooh” echoed through the walkie from the silly hat sporting boy.

Billy’s face turned rage red and a few veins threatened to pop out his neck as he had to hold back from reacting to this kind of behavior. Previously, he may have stepped forward and toward her, responding, “What did you just say to me you little shit?” and grabbing her walkie from her hand only to crack it under the weight of his favorite pair of boots, but he knew better than that now. He ignored the kid on the other line and used his rage to continue his interrogation through and through. “You’re really going to go looking for someone who’s been kidnapped? In Hawkins? Do you guys think you’re the fucking Scooby Gang? If he could have been found at this point then police would have done it.” He snapped out. Knowing the weight of his words, but taking in his typical sadistic pleasure of them as well. 

Yet, for some reason, the harsh past-tense he used, as if Steve was long gone… maybe gnawed at him a bit? Causing a slight sting around his… chest region. No, he just understood it (or rather, convinced himself) that that was purely his hatred for Steve shining through.

Now, Max knew Billy knew absolutely zilch about the upside-down. And she wasn’t going to go telling her deranged socio-brother about another dimension hoping he would be completely understanding. The thought of him listening, placing his hand on his chin like a well-trained psychiatrist and attempting to understand and empathize with her story is almost more insane than she thought Lucas to be when he first told her.

Saddened by his words, and giving up on Billy at this moment, she looked down, letting the walkie lay limp by her side and dangle along with her thoughts.

“We know that. But… look you wouldn’t understand." 

Billy crossed his arms, finally having calmed down. "Why? Oh!” He said mockingly, “Is it because I’m an idiot?" 

Max similarly crossed her arms, then caught herself mirroring Billy’s actions and uncrossed them quickly."No. You wouldn’t understand because… It’s what he would’ve done for us, and we have no frickin’ clue where he could be.” Anger slowly welled up in her eyes, lips pursing, but she held it together and pushed everything out in the form of a yelling cry instead: “He could be kidnapped, or held hostage, or in frickin’ China! or maybe he’s a car salesman now! And he just forgot to tell us,” She bit her lip “Or maybe he’s… dead” (a small gasp fell from the walkie, surprisingly she was still holding the button.) Mad Max interrupted herself with a brief pause and then recollected. “He could be ANYTHING! And we’re not going to just leave it, so I swear to god.” She took a step forward, balling her fist and looking straight into eyes, unafraid. “If you try and stop us.” She dropped her eyelids after this statement, eyes darkening, as if to express “we won’t hesitate." 

Despite the size difference, Max actually managed to pull out a subtle, drugged and unhappy memory from Billy’s mind so he moved back a step and held up his hands in a white flag position, almost shocked. "Go ahead. I’m not gonna’ fuckin’ stop you, but, just know.” He leaned forward, continuing this dance of aggressor vs. aggressor. “He probably is dead”. 

Max’s eyed widened fists pulled in tighter, inhaling quickly through her nose in shock. But she was shocked at the words, not that Billy said them. So she backed down, and sped back to her bed after realizing the tantrum wouldn’t be worth it. Through sheer wisdom, she realized that her anger would be better directed toward trying to find her friend.

Billy backed off, but after pacing toward his room, slamming the door shut behind him and igniting another cigarette between his fingers as quick as possible, those last words which escaped his lips swirled around the back of his mind. He desperately attempted to avoid them. He felt that glum heavy feeling weigh down on him too.


	2. Calli Camaro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Billy follows the kids to see how their plan pans out, and simultaneously CANNOT stop thinking about Steve Harrington.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments on the last chap! This is definitely slow burn, most of the Harringrove for these first few chapters is going to be in Billy's own sad head lol.

Billy placed his palm upon the leather steering wheel of his fresh and shiny beige Camaro. He hoped to catch the redhead girl in her act of defiance: escaping the house. Which was, thinking she was escaping his grip, but alas, he saw exactly what he wanted. Her fleeing, scooching out of the chipped painted window. Arms suspending her into the hair and her buckled canvas bag flopping onto the grass below.

What he wanted was to see Mr. Steve Harrington’s rescue mission in action, all these kids, thinking they could play cops and robbers. Thinking they knew everything, and they could be just like their favorite superheroes if they tried hard enough. It was hilarious to him, plus, convicting Max to a death sentence of verbal lash outs by her parents (ones which do the exact thing to him) was just a big red cherry on top. But, somewhere, deep down in the galaxy of his chest, miles down a black hole, created by his own swigs of Jack Daniels and tobacco rolls was the hope to hear some news on the Princely boy who he used to mercilessly berate in their gym class. To see those multicolor stripe tube socks hopping around the waxed track, his perfectly quaffed and gelled hair, flouncing up and down. Trying to make a score, to one up Billy, yet somehow simultaneously ignoring Billy as much as he could. Those big, brown, doey, ignoring, pissed off eyes. 

What, wait, how was he dozing off to thoughts like this? No. His cigarette was 25% burnt without his assistance in sucking it in and Max had already shredded down half of the hill. He hit his gear shit and convinced himself that it was just the whiskey and weird argument/conversation he had with Max talking. 

Hoping to catch up to the radical wheeling freckled girl, who moved toward the sun. The same sun which burned them both in California.

______

Max had been in the Wheeler house for 30 minutes, likely plotting what sort of plans they had ahead. Right as Billy grew too impatient, she finally emerged from the large and Reaganite household. She sported a pack of tweens behind her. Ones mind you, which Billy hated. 

His distance was enough to keep her eyes away, and she scrambled with her friends to the next destination. They seemed to be persistent and determined for a small group of pubescents. 

They knew where they were going and he followed along, pulling his leather jacket tighter onto his toned and tanned body and wiping his windshield to upkeep his so-called status of perfection (and Calli Camaro’s status too). 

Perfection. Something about wiping his windshield shifted his brain to a boy who supposedly embodied that word according to Hawkins High’s latest surveys. A flashback smacked him like a stack of bricks at full speed. The sudden thought of his damp hand slapping against the locker behind Steve's head. It was meant to keep Steve intimidated, and submissive to him. This flashback caressed his mind. Steve's flushed face and round shiny brown irises creeping up to meet Billy's feral, wounded and sharp existence. He remembers sticking the tip of his tongue out, fleshing it across his lips, and his teeth, then biting his lips. As if he wanted to taste what was in front of him. That beautiful boy. But those thoughts were of the vaguest, they could never reach Steve's mind, or Billy's lips, or much less Billy's conscious mind. How could he ever admit those kinds of feelings. What he could acknowledge was his subsequent non-sexual need to absolutely dominate. 

______

It was an hour later, he carefully careened through, watching the kids dance up ahead, looking for the X on the treasure map. They were completely silly and dumbstruck, he thought. Yet, he followed, watched as they crunched through the trees. Simultaneously yelling whispered hushes at each other and arguing whether or not their decisions were precise. Billy knew they weren't so.

He continued to follow yards behind, until, they all stopped. It was then that they stamped down in front of a tree. A tree? Seriously? With twenty thousand of those things surrounding them it was completely baffling, the notion they would choose this exact spot to contemplate Steve's potential being dead, but they did, and that's when Billy decided to step out front.

______

"Well, nice try kiddos, but I'm afraid the little geek squad meeting is over-" okay he couldn't help himself, he was Billy Hargrove after all, "-dumbasses."

Mike took that as his cue to step forward, take the fall for the rest of his crew "Um. We were just--"

"Uh duh uh" Billy mocked, quickly interrupting any thought Mike had the chance to even finish. "Yeah I know what you guys are doing obviously, trying to find Mr. Studly laying in the grass somewhere."

Lucas and Dustin gulped in unison.

"Welp- looks like this cemetery is fresh out of corpses unfortunately," his light blue, eyes widened, rabid, meant to instill fear in the short group in front of him "Oh wait, maybe I have some volunteers!"

Of course, Billy wasn't actually going to hit these kids. He saves his horsepower for the people he deems more deserving, namely, the people his age and stature who spill their perfection onto him like it’s meant to drown him. What he did intend to do was scare them, not only did it give him a chilling sense of power which ran through his veins like some sort of illegal sports-enhancing drug, but, he also thought he was teaching them some sort of lesson. That’s right, teacher Billy was trying to pull out his chalk and point at a big circle which said “responsibility” or something. He wasn't sure. 

The mama stuff was apparently Steve Harrington’s forte.

Suddenly, a wave flushed Billy's head of Steve with thick yellow dish-washing gloves and a striped hand towel thrown over his shoulder. What the fuck, he thought? He hopes he’s dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Hopes? Dreams? Lemme know I'm all ears bbs

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if I'll continue this, if I do it'll probably consist of some sort of rescue mission and comfort thought c: Lemme know if you got any feedback!


End file.
